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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

My Boli....MaayBoli....

Is speaking in your mother tongue such an "unhep" thing to do? I fail to understand why many people, especially my long lost Maharashtrian batchmates almost never speak in Marathi, even if I speak in Marathi. Or is this the fate of all Indian lingos?

I speak Marathi at home with my parents, with my Americanised brother (who also speaks shuddha Marathi with me), with any Maharshatrian I meet....and I find is sad that people speak English at home with each others, with parents.

We were discussing in my school community on orkut about how many of our batchmates have changed for better or for worse. There I found a so called "hep" Marathi gal speak about another one "...she so different now, she is slimmer, etc etc and hardly speaks Marathi"I was wondering if this was magic or tragic.....

Speaking a language is always an individual s perogative. It cant be imposed, but it has to come from within. Somehow in offices too, its strange to find ppl interacting in Marathi, when meetings are on and other ppl who dont understand a heck of it, just reduce to pedestals. When all common speaking ppl r together, no doubt speak in same language, but within a diversw group it should be a common language.

And Marathi is too rich to be affected by few guys not speaking it. BTW my mother tounge is too Marathi...

@ Aditi and SuperUnknownOfcourse, when you are in a mixed group or in a meeting you must speak a common language or English as applicable. What I meant was two friends bumping into each other at say the railway station. 9/10 mallus will speak Malayalam, 9.9/10 Gujjus will speak Gujarati. But only say 1/2 Maharashtrians will speak Marathi. Thats what I feel sad about.

@ DeshProbably Pune people are different. Marathi with a dash of English, Hindi is ok. I do that too...

Yeah true, Marathi is one language that has mixed so easily with other languages too. In my home town (in a state just above Maharashtra, the land of Holkars), 30% ppl r Marathis, but they speak both -- Marathi with Hindi mix and Hindi in much local taste...

I used to feel that if a marathi doesnt speak in marathi ,hes doin a crime. Over these years I have realised that it is not so. It depends how and where have you been raised. Though knowing your mother tongue and being able to speak it is important and gives u a sense of belonging and closeness to your roots,I feel expressing yourself is more important. If I can emote a certain thought in english in a better way than what I could do in marathi, I think I should be speaking English then. But flaunting my English or its accent just to impress people is not really cool even if its perceived to be. I guess we as a generation have failed to realise the true depth and value of our culture and traditions. A good command over English with a sound knowledge of your own roots would make us a better maharashtrian and Indian.

Well written varsha...I like your blogs...I like the way you pen down your thoughts!

Varsha, its not the problem with only Marathi. I have come across many people here in US, who never teach our languages to children. That is at least tolerable, but they keep on picking the problems in India. I am really fed up of these people.

In my college, there were few girls who never talked in Kannada or any Indian language. It creeps me out. I am not against English, I know we all should learn it, but it is not acceptable to forget our own beautiful languages.

i remember when i went to school in india, we werent allowed to speak in any other language other than ENGLISH, cause it was the only way to keep everyone together and well no one would say stuff abt the other in their personal language. yet, amongst friends, no matter who they were - we spoke "hingligh" haha english and hindi combined. but at home.. always spoke guju and still do.. but its mixed with english..

hi varsha..well what i can say is that its highly unfortunate that now a days conversing in your own mother tongue is considered as being 'unhepp'. I think that yes when you are in a professional environment like ur workplace you should not be conversing in your regional language or even in public gathering coz in those cases some people might feel left out...yes but when you are interacting with someone who speaks ur dialect, i feel at home conversing in my own mother tongue and am never ashamed off it...